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Monday, February 29, 2016

I'm typing this as the fireplace repair dude is here and I'm staring at about 3" of ass crack. He just pried our grill off, not happy about that...it just takes a little patience sir, not a crowbar. I also feel like I just smoked a cigarette simply by him entering the house. He just muttered "the logs are in here wrong." Well, they've been that way for 20 years dude, they've been just fine. It always amazes me how much service men moan and groan as they're repairing something. Kind of like..."ugh...this is soooo taxing" like they're doing you a favor. No, I needed a repair, you chose the profession and I'm paying you so shut it. When I was in a normal job, I didn't sit there sighing and saying "oh my Goooood, another paper to file....UGGGGGH, this stupid form I have to fill out!"

Dear Lord, can't he feel that draft? That is a LOT of crack to not feel something. ROFL...now he's making some unGodly noise back there whilst the Mr is on a conference call. The look on his face was pretty funny. Lots of spraying going on (I'm assuming canned air?) and I have a feeling we could've taken care of this for $8 and a YouTube video instead of $106. Oh well, it has never been serviced (I know, I know) so it probably wasn't a bad thing. Wow, that took all of 10 minutes. Ooh, he's cleaning the inside glass! Thank you sir! Please don't charge me for that. I could've done it myself but if it's included in the $106 service call charge, I'll be happy. You guys ever seen that movie The Devils Rejects? He looked exactly like Sid Haig sans makeup and blood.

Though the way he was manhandling our grills and cursing at them as he was putting them back on, he probably did cut himself so there probably was blood. They are a pain but not the kind of pain he made them out to be. Oops, nope, he's still struggling with them and grunting and groaning. Ouch, I think he took off a finger. You do do this for a living correct, sir? I mean, this isn't your first direct vent fireplace? You shouldn't have this big of a problem with it. I have a feeling we should check the top grate because I seriously think he's just going to leave it half hanging. I feel my blood pressure spiking. I want to smack him away from it and say "for the love of God man, just let me do it!" Oh gee, thanks for using our white rug instead of your paper towels to wipe up the damn remnants of what you just spread all over the floor...without adding any kind of covering over the floor I might add. Blood pressure spike. His phone just went off...should I be concerned it was a murderous scream? No, I'm serious...twas a murderous scream.

Okay, so once he started speaking, he was actually not as scary and it was no more money than the service call quoted. He complimented our gun metal casing and said it looks really good for a 20 year old fireplace. That is good to know. He said the logs were installed wrong, and one was basically laying on the burner, which he also cleaned. This does not surprise us because using the word craftsmanship to describe the construction of our little home would be an insult to actual craftsman. (IE: When remodeling the kitchen, we found the nook that was previously unused space but is now the lazy susan, is where the construction workers decided to throw away their trash. Yep...water bottles, Subway cups, scrap wood. Hell, I'm surprised we didn't find a petrified turd back there. When we had a water leak in the ceiling from the bathroom, the plumber discovered a paper towel under the pipe, indicating the people KNEW there was a leak, chose not to fix it and put up the ceiling in our living room anyway. So for him to say the fireplace logs weren't installed properly was in no way a shock. Honestly, I'm surprised the house hasn't imploded, end of Poltergeist style, from the lack of quality put into this place. But when you're 21 and 23 and you close 2 weeks before your wedding, you take what you can get to own the 'Merican dream.

Anyhoo...

So when he flipped it back on after getting everything jammed back into place, it looked purty.

That glass probably wasn't even that clean when we moved in here and we're the original owners! So I asked him what he used for the glass. He said this gas fireplace glass paste(affiliate link) and you can bet your sweet bippy I'm buying some to keep on hand. Even if I never use it as a maintenance thing, I'll sure as heck use it before we go to sell someday because people will marvel over it. If you're moving into a new home, this stuff will get off all of the previous owners grime so you can make your own new grime!

The weekend was pretty good. As we drove around, we were listening to The 1975's new album. (affiliate link) It is ridiculously good and I am obsessed. A few songs even stuck in the Mr's head...YAY! Saturday night we dove into the office. After two hours, it looked like we didn't touch much. This is what I was trying to convey to him as far as how you can be in there an hour and all you did was shred and go through piles. But we made a good dent and I hope to be as close to done with it as I can be by week's end. Sunday was pretty lazy. We had brunch and hung out for a bit then ran a few errands. I did jinx myself though Friday because I told you guys I look forward to the weekend because I get more sleep and I got horrible sleep. Grrr!

We had a 1000 calorie workout to start the last week of our Fitness Blender program. HIIT and total body strength. We opted out of abs because by that time I was at 1100 calories burned and the Mr was at 940 calories and we already worked our abs with so many of the other moves. We had soup and salad for dinner and settled in to watch the Oscars on and off.

Friday, February 26, 2016

I am ready for the weekend. Well, I always am but it means my likelihood of a normal nights sleep goes up as the Mr stays up late to play his video games. That subject may have warranted me a little surprise yesterday. I had to laugh when they were presented to me.

They appear to be the same size but when he just jammed them straight from the store into the vase almost overflowing with water, they were like 3 feet tall! I cut about 8" off of them and made them a little more presentable. But they were still much appreciated!

Are You A Fitness Bully? (I know plenty of people who think they know it all when it comes to what to eat, how to exercise and everything in between in the health game. Don't judge a book by its cover. We're all on our own journeys and there's no one right way to get there!)

3 Ways to Push Past Procrastination (Yeah...I so need to get on a certain room in the house. I'm now dreaming about it and impending tornadoes. When I have the tornado dream it means I have an internal to do list)

28 Images That Show What Happiness REALLY Is (Which one made you smile? I always loved coming home from a trip and having the dog go insane...until she realized her spoil time at Grandma's was over and gave us the cold shoulder)

The fireplace repair man is scheduled to come in a few hours. I pray we only need a cleaning and he doesn't have to do anything major. I'm not in the mood for some big azz repair right now. But I miss my fireplace and am ready to fire it back up again asap. After a snow storm, it's supposed to be 60 this weekend. I'm over winter. If you're not going to give me a solid, long lasting snow I can shoe on, then just be done and bring on the flowers. It's getting irritating.

But I do want you to think about this...Monday you get an extra day in this year. Leap Day. Do something awesome with it. Make plans. Call someone. Text someone. Go for a froyo with your honey. Blow a zerbert on your dog's belly and watch it run. Just do something out of the ordinary. You only get this opportunity every 4 years!

What are you into this weekend?

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Thursday, February 25, 2016

When the Mr got back from his chiropractor's appointment, he dropped trou to show me how his bruise on his hip from his ski tumble was progressing...

Black blocks provided for modesty

Sorry, I didn't realize it was blurry until I was editing it but you get the picture. Not pretty. Thanks for sharing, Mr.

I did my upper body workout earlier in the day because I knew he wasn't going to be able to. Then I borrowed one of his contraptions because my shoulder is still feeling pretty bad. I thought I'd share some of the things he's invested in the past week to help him on his road to recovery in case any of you should need them at some point.

This has a gel ice pack that slides into the middle of the shoulder sling and hits right in the center of the shoulder. (Damn that felt good!) The Mr will slide an extra ice pack under the arm so it hits it from both angles. It's totally adjustable and would fit pretty much anyone size wise. It's also inexpensive at $15 compared to double for other models.

He read up on TENS units which stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation and wanted to give it a try. I told him to ask the chiro first because I knew they had a unit at the office and he said it would aid in recovery and while the at home ones aren't as strong as the pro units, it could definitely help. I think he's used it once after watching a YouTube video about where to place the electrodes. He said it provided a little relief for him. I used it on my knee to see if it would help my knee pain after these brutal leg days but I didn't really feel much difference. It just feels a little tingly but I didn't jack up the volts because I'm a chicken. I'll try it a few more times to see if it works better for me. I won't dismiss it yet as they say electrode placement is hit or miss until you find what works for you. We'll see if this ends up being a permanent aid in either of our recovery.

Of course we already had the ultra sound on hand for my leg issues but he will use it in between laserings at the chiro to speed healing. I used it on my shoulder and will zap the knee too.

Good Lord man, the crap you need to help your body heal when you're out of your 20's!

We had our 2nd batch of chili and prayed.

Between the onions, peppers and black beans I'm surprised I wasn't skywriting Surrender Dorothy above the house. Then again, the wind was blowing so hard yesterday, I was surprised a house didn't fall on someone. It made me want to watch Wizard of Oz but I knew the Mr wouldn't have it...or at least not pay attention to it whilst I quoted the entire movie along with the characters. I'm sure that's not annoying at all.

What products do you use to aid in injury recovery? What movie can you recite line for line?

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Mr was teleworking so we got to get in our workout early. Twas an abs/cardio combo and then a lower body follow up. We've got about 10 days left on our 2 month Fitness Blender program. My body will be happy for the break. I'll go into that more after we're done.

A week or two ago, the Mr left a message for a fireplace service company that had good reviews but kind of a condescending message on their machine. Something along the lines of "it's fireplace season, so we're busy and will get back to you when we can." We gave it 2 weeks and the Mr followed up, expecting to leave another message but someone answered. He mentioned he'd called after he said it would be 3 weeks before he could get us in. He made the appointment and then started shopping other places because it just had a red flag feel to it. He went through Home Advisor who hooked him up with another place and we've got an appointment for Friday. Hopefully all will go smoothly and we can call and cancel the other place when this guy takes care of business.

I ran to the bank and closed out my business account. After checking my account, I noticed they'd been charging me a monthly service charge for being under a certain amount. (An amount I'd been under before with no charges) Then I also noticed there was a bogus charge on my account for a phishing site. I disputed it and when I called to discuss the service charge, the customer service rep got super condescending and I had to hold back from going Ant-Man, running through the phone line and bitch slapping him through the other end. A few days later, I got a letter basically saying that I should talk to all people authorized to use my card with an undertone of the hack being my fault. I've got news effers, I'M the only person authorized to use my card and the fact you are insinuating it's not you, it's me, means our business relationship ends. So I opened an account at a competing bank with absolutely no hidden charges and transferred everything over there. I feel much better. I don't make much but what I do make should be mine, not the banks. Rat bastards.

Later I heated up the chili and we had that with a little sourdough butt...

(Sorry Mary...the butt may not have been as scandalous as you were thinking!)

We rented Secret in Their Eyes(affiliate link) with Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman. Wow! First off, there is a scene that evoked the same emotion as M'lynn at Shelby's funeral. Then the twist and then the second twist...then the third! Holy sh*tballs! While it felt somewhat slow at parts, it was all well worth it.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Since I became pretty well versed at making granola, I wanted to experiment with bars a bit. I had some dates sitting around, it was easy to start throwing stuff in a bowl and see what popped up.

Hello lover.

The Mr seemed to enjoy them so I'll make them again. I might make another tweak and then I'll share the recipe.

I made chili because we like "second day chili" so that'll be tonight and tomorrow's dinner. It'll be nice to just reheat and not have to do a big production to get dinner together after workouts. Since the Mr is still rehabbing the shoulder, I had to workout early because it was upper body. I must admit I wasn't really looking forward to it because my shoulder is a little sore but nothing along an injury. I was exhausted all day with all of my cooking and prepping and honestly the last thing I wanted to do was work out. Sigh. But I did it and sent the Mr a note of an ingredient I needed on his way home.

Of course it figures that he got hung up at work and left 3 hours later than he was supposed to the night I was going to get fancy for dinner. I did as much ahead of time as I could and he went straight down and did T25 Focus. I'll admit, I kind of miss having some people variety in my workout. I'm thinking instead of going straight into the next round of FBFit that I'm going to take a week off and do some Turbo Fire and stuff like that. When he came up, I got the rice together and presented dinner...

Shrimp and veggie spring rolls with garlic brown rice. It was really good but not super filling so I was glad I made those bars for our snack later. It was my first try at spring rolls so they didn't look very professional but I found a great tutorial that really helped. I'm sure more are in my future.

My legs were yelling at me for being on them for so long so I gave the gams a roll with the stick while the Mr iced his shoulder. Aren't we a pair? The only thing left on the agenda for the night was watching the finale of Kids Baking Championship and collapsing in bed. (The Mr beat me to it by conking out on the couch.)

Do you prep your meals for the week or do it all the night of?

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Monday, February 22, 2016

Saturday we headed to a diner we'd been trying to go to for 3 weeks but there was always a wait. Well, the wait was the worst we've seen it so we just hunkered down and by the time we got in there, a big breakfast was required before I either ate my own arm or passed out. By the time we left, we were so full, we considered napping in the car but my wee meter wasn't having it, so we found the nearest grocery store. Then we perused a bit and I grabbed some nanas and oranges that looked good. As we were in line, I realized I needed to run go to the bathroom again. Why is it every time you are forced to drop a deuce in a public restroom, the rest of the women in the store decide they need to go too? *shaking head*

We made a few more stops and enjoyed the 65 degree day before having to head back for home to get ready for dinner. It's funny, we never have a reservation for dinner but when we do, it always ends up being the last thing I want. It didn't help both of us were still kind of full from breakfast so we didn't enjoy it as much as we would have if we went with empty stomachs. We'll likely go back though so lesson learned.

We talked in the parking lot so we wouldn't get landsharked. As the sun was setting, I told the Mr to go to the airport. We were able to catch it before the sky got totally dark which was nice.

We used to go to the airport all the time when we were dating to watch the planes take off from the gates or people watch as passengers came and went. See kids...before 9/11, you were actually able to go through security without a boarding pass and wander all public areas of airports and just hang out and dream of going anywhere but where you were. No one gave you side eye. No one blew up your bag if you happened to leave it to run to the bathroom. When you got off the plane at your gate, your family or friends would actually be waiting for you as you came off the jetway. There was nothing better than coming off a long flight than to see the smiling faces of people you loved who were welcoming you home. Now? Now, you can't park at the baggage claim for people you're picking up, they make you circle because somehow sitting there makes you "suspicious." Now, the closest you can get is just before TSA and trust me, unless there are soldiers or an honor flight coming home, don't no one wanna pick yo ass up from the airport anymore. It's just not the same. Twenty somethings (and even a few early 30 somethings) will never know the joy of those days. I'd better stop...this is turning into a good ol' days rant. Eh, I don't care. It truly was the good old days. It was something I took for granted until terroristic bastards ruined it for the rest of us. Sigh.

Anyhoo...

We did have some fun on the moving walkways in the parking garages by walking backwards and doing our rendition of Danny and Sandy singing "You're the One That I Want" complete with the spin before the "honey."

I know, we amuse ourselves.

I figured since it was late, maybe we could knock off Trader Joe's and Target so we wouldn't have to go all over town Sunday. Of course TJ's was out of like a quarter of what we needed. Don't eff with my mango yogurt, people. No brussels sprouts. No chicken tenderloins. No mango chunks. Oh well. We swung by Target and of course picked the wrong line to check out but we'd already unloaded so we had to sit there while the cashier was trying to figure out the right price for a shirt.

I didn't get good sleep going into Sunday and finally dragged myself out of bed about 9:45am. Since we do brunch on Sunday, I planned out our food for the day and when the Mr came down complaining of pit hunger, I whipped him up a yogurt smoothie to tide him over until I had brunch ready.

An open faced Mexican Sammie. Chipotle dusted sourdough (yes, I eat and manage bread...just like Oprah), garlic wilted spinach and black beans with jalapenos, 2 eggs sunny side up, 1 serving of 40% less fat/nitrate free bacon, 1 ounce of caramelized onion cheese with 1/2 tsp of chipotle Tabasco and jalapeno tomatillo hot sauce. It was fun to listen to the Mr giggle with glee with pretty much every bite. It was so good and I love having stuff on hand to be able to throw together surprise brunches full of good stuff we love. We ran to the remaining grocery for our fruits and veggies, did our food prep and got downstairs for leg day. *Groan*

What did you guys do this weekend?

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Friday, February 19, 2016

Well, I wish I could say I'm looking forward to stretching day but since we threw snowshoeing in there on Monday, we don't get a stretch day this week. I feel like my body is bah-roh-ho-ken, yo! I'm starting to wonder if the Mr looked ahead to this week and tripped himself on purpose to get out of them.

For Sleepy Hollow Ichabbie shippers (Seriously, the editing in this is some of the best I've ever seen in my life. If you didn't ship them before, you'll want to after watching this! Well except me because that's the kiss of death for a show and they've got enough problems)

Again, we have no real plans this weekend. I take that back, we're trying a new-ish restaurant tomorrow night so that'll be nice since we tend to stick with the same ol' places 90% of the time. I know...big excitment...jealous?

What are you doing this weekend?

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Thursday, February 18, 2016

I went into the office and shredded a bag of receipts and paperwork that needed taken care of. I wish the amount you shredded made the actual office look like you did something. I am happy to say, I worked my way through a SERIOUS candy craving. I almost rationalized it by saying I had enough calories and yes, I might have but that's not the kind of calories I need. By the skin of my teeth people, by the skin of my teeth.

My knee and shoulder were not happy with me so I iced on and off. I previewed what our Fitness Blender workouts were supposed to be and I knew there was no way the Mr was going to be able to do those so I messaged him he would have to do something else. As time went on, it was obvious he was going to be later than he was supposed to be so I used that time to go ahead and do my workout to which I cursed and called them names. I've done that ab workout before and when your knees are already killing you, doing some of those moves are just brutal and need to be modified. When the Mr got home, he pretty much went straight down and once I heard him put on Shaun T's 25 minute workout, I knew that would be about enough time to get dinner together.

Ground turkey taco night with mixed veggies. I really love this ground chipotle powder I got from a spice store. The smoky flavor really kicked up the flavor along with the jalapenos. Hoo cha!

Later I made us some tea (decaf green for me with Beekman Ginger Honey and chocolate chai for him) and we watched the first episode of Survivor to see if it was worth sticking with or not. I'll be honest, the adorable little Asian gardener has my vote and the second he's gone, so am I. We also like the buff 71 year old dude but you know how it goes with people that age, the younger ones think he can't hang and that they know it all. Stooges. Oh and at tribal, how badly did I want to hug the person who got voted out as their little chin quivered defending themselves?....HARD. Sweet nugget. What's your favorite tea? What do you do to combat the craving monster?

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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

It was a pretty low key day yesterday...so low key I debated posting because I bored myself recalling it!

The Mr was basically a walking ice pack and was pretty quiet as he fell in and out of consciousness all morning. I was trying to find him a cardio workout through Fitness Blender to do instead of the scheduled upper body hell that awaited me but there wasn't anything that didn't include a goodly amount of modification on his part. (Push ups, burpees, etc) I told him to just do Walk Away the Pounds while he's on a no strength training order from the chiro.

I finally got down there to do my upper body burnout and posture workout around 4pm and cursed my way through it. I had to ice my knee when I was done because between leg day on Sunday and snowshoeing the next day, my knee let me know it didn't appreciate basically two leg days in a row. The Mr pooped out on the couch and I tried not to succumb since I already snuck in a nap earlier. I decided I would go up and give the bod a soak in a nice Epsom salt/lavender bath.

Dinner was orange roughy over quinoa with brussels and we wrapped up the night with some hot tea.

I mended the Mr's pj's whilst he showed me the bruise beginning to form on his hip. It's thankfully nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.

We knocked a few more shows off the DVR including Ina Garten in Paris and I thank God I don't make a drinking game out of how many times she says "fabulous." We watched The Muppets and I have to say Uncle Deadly (Piggy's assistant) is the Mr and I's favorite character. Sooo funny. Then we had to decide what to watch live at 10pm...Limitless or The People vs. O.J. Simpson. Limitless won. About halfway through I began to feel tired which I can probably thank Flux for. Since I can be on the laptop up until 10 minutes before bed, this has really helped us by lowering the blue light from the computer. I don't know I necessarily get to bed earlier but I get tired earlier...baby steps.

Is anyone else watching The People vs. O.J. Simpson? What's on your DVR lately?
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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

In the middle of the night Sunday into Monday, we got a bit of snow. It wasn't much but given the 10 day forecast, we knew this was going to be the last chance to get out in the snow.

The Mr was quite happy to get to it.

Technically, there wasn't enough of a base for snowshoeing as demonstrated by the grass peeking through but when the winter is as crappy as this one has been for snow lovers, you do what you have to.

So off we went.

If you're reading this part, it means the Mr didn't mind my sharing that he took a bit of a tumble. Twenty seconds after I told him to watch it in this one area that is notorious for ruts, I saw him lose his balance. Before I could get to him, he went down hard on his right hip and right shoulder. You know, the shoulder he's been rehabbing for like 6 months? We wrapped it up after another lap and left after a good burn....

He burned over 1100 calories. Thankfully nothing was broken on him but the shoulder was in bad shape. Within a few hours he was at the chiro's office getting spider monkey'd (adjusted) and lasered. The doc told him to baby it for the next 48 hours so no strength training this week and he goes back Friday to get lasered again and reevaluated. In between visits, he'll be icing and using the ultra sound on it to speed the healing. I felt bad because just the night before, he had finally worked back up to 40 pound weights. I swear something always happens when he gets to that point.

Then he wanted to go see The Force Awakens one more time in the theater. Since he asked me for the 40th time to go, I agreed. About an hour into the film and five minutes into Han Solo's appearance, the power went out. I had to go to the bathroom and feeling my way in the dark was interesting. I came back through and we said we'd give it 10 more minutes. They came in and said they'd give rainchecks for free movies and about five minutes later the lights came back on so we knew the movie wasn't far behind. Ten minutes later we were back in business and I saw the whole thing. I'm not going to get into what I didn't like because I don't need the SW army hate. I will say I really liked the two new leads.

Dinner was spaghetti squash and chicken. Then the Mr got to icing the shoulder and we caught up on the DVR. It will be interesting to see if we can walk today. We did a good stretch session after playing in the snow but we could feel the lower back, hips and IT bands really tightening up as the night progressed.

Have you gotten a chance to play in the snow this season?

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Monday, February 15, 2016

It's so funny, sometimes we're all into Valentines Day and sometimes we aren't. I don't need gifts or anything, cards are fine but I didn't mind the mints the Mr picked up for me and he didn't mind the Curly Wurly's (old school Marathon bars) that I got for him. My mints are firmly hidden so I'm not tempted by them anymore.

Saturday was a good day even though we ended up going into it without a plan. (!) But words were not exchanged, tears were not shed and we were kind and considerate of each other. We were doing our main VDay celebrations that day as far as me getting cooking time off and such but we also kept leaving valentines for each other around the house...

I even took him to Toys R Us for a Star Wars figure he wants. But we had a good meal, got some running around done and rented two movies...Ant-Man for him and Love the Coopers for me. (affiliate links) While Love the Coopers wasn't necessarily an uber feel good movie, damn it was a thinker and I ended up snotty more than a few times over it just based on life lessons it was giving based on how I've been feeling lately. One of the best lines in the movie was "Why waste a moment? We're here such a short time." It was uttered by an elderly woman who had a mild form of dementia but was full of spunk. Plus I love anything with Jake Lacy in it because his good guy demeanor is just swoon-worthy as hell. The Mr really liked Ant-Man so I'm glad for that. It wasn't that I disliked it, I laughed quite a bit, I'm just not into the superhero movies.

Sunday I had a big Valentine brunch planned. I made a smoothie to tide us over because it was going to take a while but when it was done it was worth it...

Jazz and brunch...our Sunday tradition. We got into a work project that took longer than we thought and before we knew it half the day was gone. *kicks pebble* We needed to make a grocery run for some fruit and veggies so we did that and then when we got back, it was time for a hellacious 70 minute lower body session with Daniel and Kelli from Fitness Blender. Much like puppies, I think God made Kelli so cute so you wouldn't go through with any of the thoughts you had when she has you cursing her out halfway through. But we knew a good dinner was on tap afterward. I snagged the last filet mignons at Trader Joe's, had a salad and made a healthified twice baked potato...

Not to toot my own horn but...*glances both ways*...TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!! Perfectly cooked, within our calorie range (especially after burning over 1000 calories) and I know everything that's in it all! Who needs a restaurant with its jacked up prices and lukewarm food? Not us!

We chilled, caught up on the DVR a bit, and I planned some meals for the week. It was a good weekend! We're hoping to *maybe* get out to snowshoe/ski this morning but it all depends on if the weatherman was right or not and I don't put much money on those people anymore. It should feel really good after last night's leg workout. *rolling eyes*

You can bet after last Saturday that we will be coming up with a list of potential things to do and places to eat so we can see what sounds good when we wake up. It's supposed to be like...10 degrees. TEN. So being outside for any extended period of time is out. I'm sure we'll find something to get into.

What are you guys doing this weekend?

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Thursday, February 11, 2016

You ever have a day so awesome you just feel totally refreshed? Well that's how I felt after having a great afternoon tea with my friend, Annie.

I have always loved the ritual of afternoon tea. A time to take a break, appreciate the little things and get back to it. I've gone to some wonderful places for afternoon tea like Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco and The Gryphon Tea Room in Savannah, Georgia. The spreads at both places were nothing short of amazing and I was inspired to get some fun stuff to be able to throw my own afternoon teas. So when Annie wanted to meet for lunch, I seized the opportunity to do my first one of the year.

I was so excited to be able break out my vintage teacups I bought a few months ago. Since the first one I did was at Christmas, these floral cups wouldn't have been appropriate at the time but when paired up with some nice hydrangeas, they look ready to welcome spring! Since I was able to do most of my prep the day before, I was pretty relaxed before she got here. I was thankful the Mr helped get my playlist all together so it could help set the ambiance. The first album was the soundtrack to The Longest Week(affiliate link) which is jazzy with great French undertones and Love Letters: The Beegie Adair Romance Collection(affiliate link) who is a great pianist that I could listen to forever. Both are great choices so you can have something playing in the background that is soothing and unobtrusive. (Also great choices for a Valentines dinner at home!)

Since it was mid-week, I made a healthy menu with veggies, light tea sandwiches and desserts of dark chocolate drizzled strawberries and almond stuffed dates. It was lots of girl talk, life talk, relationship talk and everything in between. It's also nice because she truly appreciates the effort I put into the meals I make when she comes over. Her boyfriend said if I was making breakfast, he was calling off work because it was so good when they came over last time. She's about 10 years younger than me but she's going into her 30's and she relies on me to give my life experiences and I rely on her to give me fresh perspective. It was kind of funny though listening to her talk about how she and her boyfriend have a nephew who came over while they were watching a childhood VHS and he was calling it a dinosaur and had no clue what it was. We laughed and said "welcome to the club, it only gets worse from here." (She stayed for 6 hours so the Mr was there when she told that story.) I always feel so much better after a visit with her. She's one of those people that is so positive and so eager to try things. She once saw a woman in a fitness competition, thought it looked cool and totally trained hard, did a competition and went back to life. I love her so much, she's truly the little sister I never had.

When she left, we went down and did our workout...cardio and upper body strength. Dinner was mahi mango tacos and green beans. We caught up on the DVR a bit.

Have you attended an afternoon tea? Have you thrown one yourself?

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Yesterday was a long day. It finally snowed the first big, fluffy flakes of the season...

Unfortunately, I couldn't pause to enjoy them much. I had a ton of prep work to do for my afternoon tea today. I wanted to get everything done ahead of time so all I had to do was assemble today. I always seem to be running around like a nut job until the second people arrive and am exhausted.

I started the car since it doesn't like the cold while I made all of my main dishes. I needed to go to Whole Foods for the last few items that I needed to be the freshest. I ate my lunch and got the car wiped off to leave, went to remote start it and click, click, click. Are you effing serious!? I just ran the thing like 3 hours ago and it dies?! So continues my fantastic week. The Mr is in training for a few days and I knew he'd be late so this was going to be a longer night.

He got home at 6pm and we went straight to Whole Foods. I was less than impressed with their offerings on what I thought they had in the past. I could've gone to the big box grocery store for what I ended up with. I was going to get pomegranate seeds but the ones there were moldy! GROSS! So we ran up the street to Trader Joe's and grabbed some flowers and they had non-grody pom seeds for my salad. I made the Mr extra of some of the stuff we were going to have so he would feel included even if he wasn't going to be here.

Then of course we had to workout and did day 31 of our Fitness Blender workout which was HIIT and abs. We're both so toast this week from those and it was only Tuesday. Then I made dinner real quick which thankfully I prepped as I prepped today's stuff and then it was back to the cleaning/prep grind.

The Mr busted his hump to help me get the place in order and I'm so thankful. I didn't sit down to type this until 11pm. My feet hurt, I didn't get to take a shower so that'll be the first thing I do this morning after I enjoy a good night's sleep. It'll be worth it because the house will be presentable and I'll get to spend more time with my friend due to good preparation. I'm excited for a relaxing girls day!

Do you prep a lot the day before or make things while talking to guests?

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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Last night we had a pretty devastating (to me) emotional accident. I had to get into a box a few days ago so I moved a glass platter I've used every Christmas of my life, on to the dryer. Last night I was going to move it back but saw the platters I needed to put it with should have a layer of bubble wrap between them because one got chipped last year. I said to myself I would move it after our workout because we got down later than I wanted to but not before admiring it one more time and thinking of how much it meant to me. The day before I had the Mr wash our shoes and he dried them on a rack in the dryer. He got them out so we could work out with them and put the rack up on top of this wire shelving unit we have over the washer and dryer. When he put a cake carrier on top of the rack, he didn't notice it wasn't on a flat surface and 2 minutes later...

BOOM...SMASH!!!

We ran over and there on the dryer sat the last shred of Christmas past I had left...shattered in pieces. A cake carrier he'd just put back, slid off and fell onto the dryer, shattering it into a zillion pieces. I burst into tears and sobbed. I mean sobbed. I didn't blame him completely because I should've just put it back when I got what I needed. If it meant that much to me, I shouldn't have procrastinated. Now I had to pay the price for my carelessness. It wasn't just the platter, it was truly one of those "five things you would grab in a fire" items for me. When I was little it was like this fancy looking platter and when I got married and was going through the basement, I asked my mom if she was going to use it and she told me to take it if I wanted it. Last Christmas when I had cookies on it for Christmas Eve, she laughed and said she couldn't believe I still had it. We didn't have many actual items that were left after the flood that ruined all of my childhood Christmas stuff but this platter was one of the survivors...like me and my mom. It was the last thing I still had left from Christmas pasts and with everything I feel I've lost over the past few years including my grandma who was the glue of Christmas for me and how horrible gatherings have been since that happened, it just felt like the final nail in Christmas coffin for me hence the sobbing. I know this has to sound incredibly stupid to people especially if you're not a sentimental kind of person but I am and now it just feels like I have nothing left from that time. (Probably because I don't.) Sigh. Just felt like a metaphor for my life lately.

The Mr asked if I wanted to be alone and I didn't because what could be done at that point. He felt bad, I felt bad, we needed to work out so we just got on with it. It was a nice, horrible upper body burn out that left my right hand and shoulder totally fubar'd afterward. (I have to say we're both getting a little ticked that we've only lost 3 lbs in a month with this Fitness Blender program. We've both felt so beat by week's end, look forward to the stretching day on Friday and rest day on Saturday because they whip our butts so bad. We're trying to be patient but crap man!)

I made a rare dinner...a healthier knock off of a dish we like at Bubba Gumps.

It was supposed to be "I'm Stuffed" Shrimp over TJ's Rice Medley. It was okay but the oil I used was bad and the shrimp ended up rubbery. I will not follow the tip to use precooked shrimp next time especially since I had raw shrimp when I started. The Mr liked it, that's all that mattered. Oh and in case you're giving the dinner a bit of side eye after my Fitness Blender rant, I know it looks decadent but when I say knock off, it was nowhere NEAR the calorie count of Bubba Gumps. It was made with a piece of light bread for the crumbs, no salt, 1 tsp of olive oil and a split serving of light cheese. It was well within our calorie range...the calorie range that time and time again we are told is too low for the exercise we do but the thought of going into the mid 2000's is terrifying to both of us. We've been under 2000 for years and it plain does not work for us yet it's so drilled into our heads to be in the mid to lower 1000's that anything higher seems like it would make us gain. Since we're trying out FB's exercise program, we should probably take their eating advice as well.

I did get a majority of the house cleaned on the lower level. I also went through the lazy susan and got out some stuff taking up room to donate. I cleaned everything. put it back all nice and neat and I hope it stays that way. Today I have to do as much prep as I can ahead of time and make a run over to the grocery for fresh greens and strawberries for my lunch date tomorrow with a friend. Then Thursday I will start on the office. Ugh.

Have you ever lost/broke a sentimental piece?

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Monday, February 8, 2016

I'm glad this weekend is over. Twas not harmonious. So I will post the best thing about Saturday...

Don't let the smile fool you...10 minutes later the Mr & I were hissing at each other like cats and dogs.

Saturday night was a pretty intense, serious 3 1/2 hour slobberknocker of a "discussion" until 3am. I am hopeful things will get better and sometimes you have to just go to the ugly, dark places to come through to the light. Movin' forward to being better people than we were two days ago.

Yesterday wasn't full of as much progress on my end for cleaning but the Mr stepped up like a champ. I made brunch, our usual Sunday tradition.

Brings new meaning to 'sunny side up!'

It was grocery haul weekend so the fridge is full. The Mr got tired so I didn't hold him the Sunday night veggie cutting. He's teleworking today so he can do it sometime today and I'll eat the older veggies. He earned a little down time. It was leg day and because I was an idiot and wore boots with heels the day before, I was in bad shape before the workout and I should be heartily limping like Keyser Soze. (affiliate link)

Today I need to get my part done. I already feel some stress lifting by the house's lower level looking almost acceptable for company and now I need to work on the upper level. I need to breathe and the clutter is stifling not just on a stress level but on a creativity level. It needs to stop.

What did you do this weekend?

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Friday, February 5, 2016

I want to thank everyone for your support with my mammogram call back story and for sharing some of your own experiences. It can be a very isolating experience being frozen in anxiety and a whirl of negative thoughts. People who you think will support you in the way you need may not. Even when I used my all clear as a reminder to get checked yearly on my personal social media, all I really got were a few "likes." Three people did leave comments which I greatly appreciated but I won't lie, it made me sad. No one messaged me privately including people who had been through the same situation and biopsies or even cancer themselves to acknowledge that even if it turned out okay, it's still scary to go through. Maybe I'm overly sensitive, I've been there for people in the same situation but there you have it. If you find yourself going through the same thing, pick a girlfriend you know you will understand your concerns and who will listen to you.

We've got some cleaning to get done. I've got an afternoon tea planned with a girlfriend the middle of next week and I don't want to be stressed out with a bunch of cleaning in addition to shopping for and making everything. We're both trying to be good so I'm going to make some healthy nibbles. I don't want to throw off my efforts mid week so it'll be fun to challenge myself.

What are you guys doing this weekend?

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Thursday, February 4, 2016

I don't know why but I've always been intimidated by spaghetti squash. Since I've moved into the world of zucchini hybrid spaghetti dinners in the summer time, I figured I'd grab a good spaghetti squash when I saw one at the store. How different could they be?

Way different!

As in, more awesome.

Please excuse the bad pics, these winter hours of no daylight are not conducive to very pretty pics when your kitchen is a cave!

I did a little research on the quickest way to prepare them and you can nuke microwave them at 6 minutes per pound. Since I had about a 1 1/2 pound one, I poked a paring knife through the skin three times and put it on for 9 minutes. Then I cut off the stem area and split it in half.

As you can see the seeds still needed to be removed but some of the spaghetti stringing had already begun during cooking.

I removed the seeds and got to shredding with a fork.

It shredded so easily and had a great sweetish smell from the steam but no overabundance of water like you get with zucchini.

This is what it would look like if you wanted to go for it in a big way on a salad plate.

You can see you wouldn't be lacking for bulk and it's only about 60 calories for that whole heap undressed compared to 200 calories for 2 ounces of pasta.

Because it's pretty much a blank slate on the flavor scale, I roasted a head of garlic and added black pepper and italian seasoning to soak in the fridge while I waited for the Mr to come home for dinner.

When it was dinner time, I added 2 ounces of whole wheat spaghetti to half of the spaghetti squash so I could compare it to the zucchini version.

As you can see, you can barely tell the difference between the two especially once you add the sauce.

That night I was making a chicken parm type dish so I split the pot and topped with some chicken breast and shredded gruyere.

I saved 180 calories by using the spaghetti squash than if I'd had two portions of whole wheat spaghetti. Now I know many people will use all spaghetti squash but we're not down with the complete removal of pasta so this is a great compromise.

I'll definitely be making it again!

Do you eat spaghetti squash? What are some of your favorite ways to use it?

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Wednesday, February 3, 2016

If you haven't read the precursor to this, go here and read that first.

The weekend before the follow up was okay. We went to a new restaurant and went to an antique store that had an old photo booth in it. I decided we should cram ourselves in there and take some pictures since that used to be our thing when we were dating. When the pictures spit out five minutes later and I looked at this strip of smiling and goofy faces, I wondered if it would be the last normal picture of us. If this is the strip we'd look back on and say "that was before we knew."

The night before the mammogram, the Mr and I played a hearty game of Boggle and finished up around 10:30pm and he insisted we get to bed early (for us) so we could get a good night's sleep. I was having trouble getting to sleep since it was earlier than normal for me. Around 12:30am, the phone rang. Well unless you're in college, you know no good comes from middle of the night calls. It was a friggin' robo call!! The Mr was livid. I just tried to keep calm and get some rest. We put the phone on do not disturb and got 20-30 minutes here and there throughout the night. It was not restful. The alarm went off and I hopped in the shower, ate breakfast and we got on our way. I spent the 30 minute drive singing some of my favorite songs like Uptown Funk
because who can be scared or nervous belting that out? Then we pulled into the parking lot about 10 minutes early and sat there listening to the radio. The Mr asked how I felt and I said I wanted to barf. I kept that feeling at bay for the long haul but now it was right in front of me. When I walked out of that building I would either be relieved and life could resume as normal or my life would be forever changed and a new level of terror would set in.

Me being me, I baked and brought cookies. What can I say, it calms me. They pretty much took me straight back and I didn't properly get to say goodbye to the Mr. They directed me to the 2nd waiting room where all of the ladies waiting to get their boobs smashed sit with their robes on and reading magazines to distract themselves. I came out and there was one other woman in there. It was probably about 10-15 minutes, I'm not sure because they don't have clocks back there. What is this, a casino?

When the tech came out, she was obviously sick and shouldn't have been at work that day. The last thing I needed was to catch her creeping crud. I told her to squash that thing flat as a pancake, I could take it. She obliged and the first scan went fine. I glanced at the screen and saw my original 3D mammogram on the screen and could see the parts they were looking at...no tumors from what I could see but it looked like a few tiny dense areas or possible calcifications. Then the new image of what she just scanned popped up beside it and it looked significantly less white to me and almost like the rest of the tissue. I was relieved. "They just needed to squish harder" I thought. Then came the second scan and when it was over, the machine released but she didn't tell me to move. She kept looking at it and I said "should I move or stay here?" and she said "stay there for a second."

"Great, she saw something. What is she seeing? Why isn't she clearing me to walk away?" Thirty seconds passed which is 10 minutes in anxiety seconds and she finally gave me the okay to step away. My confidence was shaken. She led me to a two seat waiting area where I would be told if I needed to be re-scanned or if they were going to take me in for an ultrasound. It was right next to a glass door and it was cold. A few minutes later, a woman came out from the staff door with my box of cookies and asked if I made them. I said yes and as she read the thank you note I attached, she asked me what made me do such a nice thing. I told her I had nurses in the family and I knew it could be a thankless job and I just wanted them to know I appreciated all they do. She was so tickled and gave me a big hug and said she was going to share with everyone. I felt good and was glad I did it.

As time passed and I sat there surrounded by rag mags, muzak versions of "Your Song" and "I Believe I Can Fly" and mounting fear, I started fearing the worst. Twenty five minutes passed and my shaken confidence was dipping to a new low. How long does it take to look at a scan when the guy is right there? I can't imagine recall patients being forced to wait a second longer than they have to but here I was and I was falling apart inside.

When another recall patient, who was clearly annoyed at having to be there given the way she was speaking to the technician, was seated beside me in the shoebox waiting area, immediately hopped on her phone.

Five minutes of this along with her phone ringing and replaying the pissy attitude I heard from her to people who were there to help her and I was ready to belt her out the window. I wanted to say "YOU are the reason I had to bake cookies! Women like you who come in here with your attitude like they enjoy calling you back and throwing a wrench into your day!" I refrain. Thankfully, it was about that time, a woman came around the corner and asked my name and I told her and she told me to come with her. This was it. The next thing to come out of her mouth was going to potentially change my life or allow me to exhale for the first time in 9 days.

"You won't need to be scanned again and no ultrasound is needed today. The radiologist looked and your results are negative, there was nothing suspicious found."

Insert bursting into tears, slobber down the lips ugly cry of relief with profuse apologies for my reaction. She smiled and hugged me tight and said it was okay and perfectly normal to feel that relief. She said my breasts are going through all kinds of things from a hormonal standpoint and those changes are normal but it's always best to be safe when there is a change from the baseline mammogram. and I wouldn't need to come back for a year.

I got dressed and headed out to the waiting room where a nervous Mr stood to greet me and put my coat on for me. I said goodbye to the receptionists who were thanking me for the cookies and we walked out and he said "so?"

I smiled and said "everything's good!" He breathed a sigh of relief and I told him all about it when we got to the car. I've never been so relieved in my life and I will make a note to the technician for every future mammogram that my right boob is apparently a troublemaker and will need an extra squish because I don't want to be going through that every year.

The Mr's take:

"That day’s good news is so relieving and so happy but I’d remiss if I didn’t mention that I still think about the other possible outcomes. I feel deeply sorry for anyone out there who didn’t get good news and I pray that they find happier times ahead as well. To Anele I just want to say that it, well, goes without saying that you truly are my world and I do not know what I’d be without you. We’re best friends and there’s just no words to convey how much you mean to me. So I’m thankful that you’re good to go on this one. But even more thankful that you do the right things now to get healthy and keep up on things like mammograms, etc. Keep that up!"

90% of recall mammograms are perfectly fine and not cancer. But I am more than aware that someone has to the be 10% and to that 10%, my hats off to the survivors and my heart goes out to the ones lost. I was safe this time but may not always come out that way and treating your body with that respect by getting your yearly mammograms is so very important. Remember if you have one bad experience with a mammography that is not how everyone does it. Search for a women's health center that specializes in mammograms and keep going until you find a place that knows what they're doing.

For most, the mammograms don't even hurt, they're just a little uncomfortable because the technician is whippin' yer biscuits. Yes, it is scary to think that they could find something but wouldn't it be better to find it early than to put it off and lose the battle because you were worried about 4 minutes of awkward? I have a friend whose mom died of breast cancer, she watched her fight it and flat out refused to get mammograms because she was scared. Well, she ended up with it 10 years later but it was through self exam and had been there a while. She went through a lot and I wonder if her fight could've been easier if she'd just gone yearly.

If you are currently awaiting your first follow up and need some good information, these sites helped me during my waiting period:

When was your last mammogram? Have you ever had a call back mammogram?
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About Me

I've lost over 200 lbs the old fashioned way with some more to go. I'm doing this with my hubby (The Mr) and he has lost 190 lbs so far. I wanted to share my journey as well and give people with a lot of weight to lose hope that this can be done without surgery or cutting out entire food groups! Passionate about photography, cooking, traveling, DIY and anything 80's.

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